Utensil lifter



Feb. 24. 1925.

F. c. SIBLEY UTENSIL LIFTER v Filed Jan. '26, 1924 INVENTOR fFP/l/VA 6T J/BLEY ATTORNEY? Patented Feb. 24, 1925.

PATENT OFFICE- FRANK C. SIIBLEY, OF WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON.

UTENSIL LIFTER.

Application filed January 26, 1924. Serial No. 688,663.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that FRANK 0. Sunn a citizen of the United States, residing at Walla Walla, in the county of Walla Vv alla and State. of Washington, has in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Utensil Lifters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates toutensil lifters and has as one of its objects to provide a lifter that is cheap to construct and that is highly efficient in operation.

Another object of the lifter is to provide a means for lifting utensils that is equally adaptable to utensils of various sizes.

A further object of the invention is to provide a lifter whose construction and design remove the possibility of bruising the hand of the operator.

lVith these and other objects in View reference is had to the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the device;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the base of the lifting arm;

Fig. 3 shows a rear view of. one of the arms, and portrays the method of gripping various sizes of utensils, the three objects 30 representing three positions of one arm;

Fig. 4 is a rear view of the handles, enlarged, and showing the spring hinge in an open position;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the handles, enlarged, and showing the spring hinge in an closed position;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a fragment of the device showing method of attaching the lifting arms; and

Fig. 7 is a similar view to Fig. 6 showing a modified form of attachment for the lifting arms.

Having reference to the drawings like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views and the numeral 1 refers to a pair of sticks, rectangular in cross section, with one end of each stick rounded on its upper side, as at 2, to form handholds 3. p i

At the front end l of the sticks is a hinge 5, which may be of any; suitable design, and intermediate the ends of the sticks a spring hinge 6 is suitably attached thereto.

The spring hinge consists of plates 7-7, having extended portions 8 that abut each other, as at 9, when the lifter is in the normal open position.

An enlarged rear elevation of the hinge is shown in Fig. 4, this figure also showing an extended portion as terminating in depending lips 10, the lips being partly broken away to disclose a spring 11, mounted on a pivotal member 12, with the ends 13 of the spring engaging the lips in the usual manner of spring hinges, and the pivot passing through the depending lips and upon which the hinge operates.

The abutting portion forms a stop to maintain the sticks in a position off center so that a slight squeezing on the hand holds will tend to close the lifting arms 14:, which will be. presently explained.

The pivotal member 12 is brought in between the sticks to provide for maintaining a constant, orincreasing, space15 between them, thus to prevent pinching or bruising the hand of the operator when operating the device.

The lifting arms 14: consist of formed wires which are rigidly attached to the sticks by means of a washer 17 and riveting as shown in Fig. 6, or may be attached by means of a return bend 18, the point 19 of which is driven back into the sticks, as shown in Fig. 7.

The lifting arms comprise a pair of single wires, each wire being rigidly attached to its respective stick in the manner above explained,'the wires forming a part of a skeleton basket the sides of which ar movable with the sticks.

The wires are bent outward at the sticks and are then given a downward curve 20 (see Fig. 3) that brings the wires down to join, by suitable curves, a curved base 21, the two bases forming an incomplete circle.

The wires join the bases by means of verticle right angle bends 22 and horizontal bends 23, with the inner part 24 of the horizontal bend joining the base at a slight angle, as at 25, in a manner to advance the point 26 withinthe line, if it were continued, of the curved base 21, and in a manner that theverticle wires of the lifting arms will be located outside ofthis line.

The purpose of these bends and the ad vanced point is best described by referring to Fig. 2 wherein the dotted lines represent the outer line, or perimeter, of utensils of various sizes, the small size being designated by the numeral 27, that of the medium size by the numeral 28, and the large size by the numeral 29.

In this figure it will be noted that Where a small size utensil is grasped the point of engagement will be a very small fraction of the perimeter of the utensil, thus providing for grasping the utensil under adverse circumstances as when the bead 30 would be low down or where it is advisable to force the baseunder the bottom of the utensil.

In the medium size utensil the relatively small surface of the point 26 will easily engage and grip the utensil 28 under the bead, and in the large utensil the point would engage the utensil without interference from the curved base.

These three positions of engagement are shown plainly in Fig. 3 in which the same numerals are used to designate the utensils as are used in Fig. 2, the dotted lines of this figure representing the corresponding utensils in Fig. 3.

, The point of contact of the curved base and the small utensil 27 is shown at 27 the point 26 projecting above and in a manner not to interfere with grasping the utensil, the medium size utensil is grasped by the point 26 with the base coming close in to the utensil, and the large utensil 29 will be supported by the points 26 alone. By this design any utensil, of any size, may be grasped with equal ease.

In use the lifting arms are placed over the'utensil to be lifted with the sticks and lifting arms in the normal open position; the handles are now pressed together by closing the hand of the operator, when the two bases, or points, force themselves under the utensil, or grasp it as above explained. By maintaining the grip on the handheld the utensils maybe carried or moved about without danger of spilling the contents, or without burning the operators hand in case of hot cooking vessels.

By the elongated sticks articles may be easily withdrawn from the oven, and further a hot utensil may be tipped for draining purposes, in which last case the cover maybe left on to retain the solid contents without in anywise interfering with the operation of the device.

Having thus described my invention, I claim In a utensil lifter, the combination of a pair of spring actuated handles, hingedly attached to each other, the hinging means maintaining said handles apart when the lifter is closed, and lifting arms rigidly attached to said handles and provided with advanced points, and further provided with a base whose curvature has a greater radius than that of the largest utensil receivable in the lifter.

In testimony whereof I alfiX my signature.

FRANK C. SIBLEY. 

